FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to small, low cost wood or coal burning stoves which also function as a fireplace permitting viewing of the fire within the fire box, cooking of food or the like on a flat horizontal wall of the stove above the fire, and reflection and convection of heat from the stove fire box into the room within which the stove is positioned.
With the recent increase in liquid petroleum fuel prices, public attention has shifted back to the utilization of wood burning stoves or heaters as the means for heating individual rooms and for the cooking of food. Such stoves and heaters are also employed in heating of vacation homes, hunting camps, temporary dwellings, and of permanent buildings where such buildings do not have access to liquid or gas fuels or where firewood is abundantly plentiful. Particularly in contemporary homes, such as A-frames, sheet metal fireplaces are in vogue wherein the fireplace is formed of relatively thin gauge sheet metal such as steel and the fire box is vertically supported at some distance from the floor, in some cases simply suspended from the ceiling by way of the flue stack which permits the heat from the burning logs within the fire box to radiate into the room within which the fireplace is mounted, while at the same time the occupants may view the wood as it burns through a side opening of the fire box.
While some of the fireplace heaters and cooking stoves have adequately performed their individual functions, such stoves have not functioned satisfactorily as fireplace heaters in that the interior of the fire box is normally hidden from view, while the fireplace heaters which permit the viewing of the burning of the logs through the open sidewalls, are not particularly effective and efficient, either in burning of the logs or radiation of the heat into the room within which the fireplace heater is mounted.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a low cost, sheet metal fireplace stove which is highly efficient in terms of obtaining useful heat from the logs or coal burned within the stove.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved fireplace stove in which the combustion air being directed to the fire box at the base of the flame cools a tempered glass plate which overlies a front opening within the sheet metal fire box prior to its being utilized at the combustion area within the fire box.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a sheet metal fire box of octagonal configuration in vertical cross-section wherein the bottom wall and the outwardly inclined lower sidewalls of the fire box are lined with fire brick to store and reflect heat away from the floor upon which the fireplace stove sits and to permit thermal stress to the fire box without warpage of the same.